Swimming with sharks - The graphic novel. 2018 - Gold at Muse Creative 2018, New York

A compact and visual version of the book 'Swimming with sharks’ by Joris Luyendijk, Dutch anthropologist and journalist for The Guardian newspaper. He spoke with 200 London bankers to find out how they operate and what drove the financial crisis in 2008. Ten years after little has changed to avoid a possible new crisis. The solution starts with understanding the problem. Free PDF download.

Dutch national police force - Logo & visual identity design. 1992.

The visual identity developed for the Dutch police force merges the spirit of two previously autonomous police organisations - namely, the state and municipal corps in a single logo. The flame symbol can be seen as a beacon, a protective flame. This is combined with a law book-like form and the word 'politie'.

The additional orange and blue striping system applied on all cars, boats and helicopters optimise visibility and safety at day and night time. The clients were the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Justice to the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The police identity won several design awards. In 2006 the Dutch police striping was selected by public vote as one of the 25 Dutch Design icons of the last 100 years. As senior designer with Gert Dumbar at Studio Dumbar.

Juzix - Naming, logo & visual identity design. 2017.

Juzix is a Chinese blockchain specialist, operating in the fields of finance, technology and other secure digital value transactions. The name Juzix combines the first part of the Chinese name Juzhen meaning ‘Matrix’ and the last part of its meaning in English. The symbol visualises a network of progressively growing interactions.

SparkyTiger developed the international name and designed the logo and visual brand for Juzix. In collaboration with Think Pro, Shanghai.

Lowlands & Partners - Logo & visual identity design. 2016.

Lowlands & Partners is specialised in family wealth management with an exclusive and personal touch. They work with the best and premium partners around the globe. Legacy planning, asset management and lifestyle solutions. The founding partners of the company are European and Chinese. Their clients Chinese entrepreneurs looking for residence overseas with their family, businessmen wishing to diversify their assets to create an international portfolio. Also families wanting to protect their wealth for the next generation or who want to sent there children to the most prestigious boarding schools in Switzerland.

SparkyTiger designed the logo and visual brand for Lowlands & Partners. In collaboration with BSUR and WDK in Shanghai who are responsible for the naming and strategic positioning. As creative director of SparkyTiger.

Dutch Culture Centre - Logo & visual identity design. 2010.

The Dutch Culture Centre was an initiative of the Netherlands China Arts Foundation. It offered a diverse cultural program in down town Shanghai alongside ‘Happy street’, the Dutch pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo 2010. The program lasted for six months and was predominately focused on a Chinese audience.The logo for the DCC shows the silhouette of the Culture Centre in white against colourful flowers, referring to the tulip as a typical Dutch icon and the magnolia, the symbol of the city of Shanghai. The communication was bilingual, both in Chinese and English. The festive style was applied on various graphic items and a website. As creative director with Rosanne Wong and the team of Studio Dumbar China.

Hewlett Packard campaign - Airports Milan and Rome.2006.

For the Hewlett Packard head quarters in San Francisco the HP campaign was developed for the Italian airports of Milan Linate and Rome. 'Change + HP' was the all over theme of this corporate campaign. Arrow like shapes were the visuals. More than 1000 graphics were applied in all public spaces; on walls, check in counters, tables and escalators, elevators and pillars. In collaboration with Goodby Silverstein and Partners. As designer and co-founder with the team of NLXL.

Alphasense - Logo and visual identity design. 2016.

Alphasense, an innovative consumer product, is a responsive headband combining neuroscience technologies with eastern spirituality. The headband gives personalised feedback to the user to improve and deepen yoga meditation. It helps to solve sleeping problems and releases stress. Alphasense is developed in collaboration with the Harvard Center for Dynamic Biomarkers, will have its launch in the US and be available it the rest of the world after.

SparkyTiger is a twinkling and independent design studio based in Shanghai. Our expertise is creating visual brands to make organisations, products and services stand out and become memorable. From scratch for start-ups, adapting them in the process of change or preparing to go international. The studio is founded by Joost Roozekrans, a Dutch designer and creative director and Liza Lin a designer from China.

Network of specialists

SparkyTiger collaborates with an extensive network of specialists from China and around the world. Depending on the scope of the project and expertise needed we create the team required. SparkyTiger works for businesses, governments, educational institutions, media companies, services and cultural organisations. Variety is good for creativity.

Joost Roozekrans - founder & creative director

Joost is working 25 years in the design profession. He is living in Shanghai since early 2009, where he was working for four years as the creative director of Studio Dumbar China before starting SparkyTiger. Next to this Joost is part-time university lecturer branding & identity design in Shanghai.

Before moving to China he was co-founder, partner and designer of NLXL (2001 - 2008), a design studio for visual communication and interaction design and creative team leader at Studio Dumbar in the Netherlands. He lived in London for two years working both as a freelance designer and as the senior designer at 'The Guardian', responsible for the design of the online newspaper. In 1991 his first project at Studio Dumbar was designing the visual identity for the Dutch national police force.

Liza Lin - founder & designer

Liza is from Shanghai. She has been working as a designer of 15 years. Liza was trained as an interior designer and working for about eight years for international interior design firms in Shanghai, than changed over to graphic design working free lance and for the hospitality industry. She is involved as a designer and responsible for the operations and project management of the studio.

I have been in the design profession for 30 years, working mostly on developing visual brands for organizations, services and products. And that is what I still enjoy doing a lot. Before moving to China in 2009 I was teaching occasionally and giving design workshops in Europe and the US. Since...

Freely translated the meaning of Shanghai is ‘Above the sea’. Coming from the Netherlands this visual essay celebrates five years in Shanghai. The beauty of living in an other culture is that ordinary everyday things become special and surprising. The pictures were never taken with the idea that...

A compact graphic novel based on the book 'Swimming with sharks’ by Joris Luyendijk, journalist for The Guardian on the 2008 financial crises. 10 years after little has changed to avoid a possible new crisis. The solution starts with us understanding the problem. Care and share! Free English...

I gave a workshop about branding for master students of the International Communication University China (ICUC). Part one of a series of four workshops by DeTao’s De Boer & Wang Studio. The over all theme was ‘The analytical mind’, revealing what brands are made of, why they are needed and what...

This is work of my second years students of the identity advanced class at DeTao in Shanghai. They had to design sets two graphic symbols of opposites or pairs that can clearly communicate a single meaning to a Chinese and international audience. Indirectly an exercise in designing vignettes or...